This is a Make or Break Week for American Healthcare

April 17, 2018

UPDATED 4/7/2018 9:38am MT

“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected become as angry as those who are.” -Benjamin Franklin

Investing in the Future We had a great weekend of ballot signature collection at both the Democratic and Republican Assemblies this weekend. People are angry about America’s broken healthcare system and it continues to impress me just how bi-partisan the subject of price transparency in healthcare truly is. But getting this legislation on the ballot is also a costly process. Please consider making a contribution to help ensure we get this done. As I’ve said before, I see this as more of an investment than a contribution. If we restrain the rising cost of healthcare by even 1%, that’s worth $100/year for every member of your family. The cost savings we drive are much larger than that. While it might sound like a lot, consider how much you are spending on premiums, co-pays and deductibles. Isn’t this worth an investment? We can’t leave it to others to solve this problem. Everyone should contribute or we risk not getting it done.

Corporate Workshops/Webinars I’m also going to be offering all of the following to help your companies contribute. Participants who need to earn credit toward professional recertifications will be able to get one-hour of credit from IACET or SHRM. Here are some workshops/webinars to choose from:

I will come to your company and speak to employees about how to manage their own healthcare costs and will ask your company to make a donation. Just one person making one good decision by avoiding the wrong emergency room can save thousands of dollars. Many employees making better decisions when they have a better understanding of how our healthcare system really works. Just write me to schedule it.

I will be conducting a webinar geared toward individuals/employees. Watch for that announcement. The recommended donation is $59.

I will be conducting a webinar geared toward CEOs, CFOs, and benefits managers responsible for managing their company’s health insurance plans. The recommended donation is $299.

Legislation Status On the legislative front, the healthcare price transparency bill we’ve been fighting for goes to committee on Thursday, April 26th at 4pm MT. Please come and voice your support. If you’ve never been to a committee hearing, this would be a great time to get involved. It will be busy, but please introduce yourself—I’d love to meet you.

The ballot measure is an important element of the pressure on the legislature and many of them saw our signature collectors out there this weekend. HB18-1358 will be the first step in transforming American healthcare by setting an example right here in Colorado. It’s a bold bill, but one that is steeped in common sense and simplicity. If you read the bill, it might feel overwhelming at 20 pages, but there’s actually very little to it. The first 8 pages are declarations and definitions—legalese to most of us. The bill is double spaced, too. All the bill really does is require transparency into the prices we’ll pay for healthcare services and prescription drugs. That’s it. Don’t we deserve that? Don’t we need it?

This bill couldn’t be more timely, either. Last week California introduced a bill that is the complete opposite: total price regulation, including the prices paid by insurance carriers. Of course the healthcare industry quickly came out in strong opposition, just as they have in the case of our bill here in Colorado. So ask yourself—if they don’t want regulated prices, and they don’t want transparent, competitive prices, what is it they want? You got it—they want the status quo, which is a system of confusion, obfuscation, and structural collusion that protects skyrocketing, monopolistic prices, creates barriers to competition, and concentrates the profits in the hands of just a few large actors. Slowly, not only are smaller healthcare providers being shut out of the market, so, too are smaller companies that can’t find affordable healthcare for their employees. The economic consequences of not fixing our system should frighten everyone—including long-term shareholders of healthcare industry stocks.

Best Practices We are not trying to destroy America’s healthcare system. We are trying to save it. We don’t want to emulate the systems they have in other countries. We want to take the best ideas from everywhere and build a uniquely American system that we can be proud of and that serves all Americans—one that is competitive, innovative, and affordable, so that all Americans can access the healthcare they need to live long and productive lives. Making choices about which characteristics of other systems are best is something we do in business. It’s a simple concept, really, it’s called Best Practice Adoption. The thing is that government can’t choose best practices. No one can. It’s done through markets where some companies try one thing, while others try something else. The market determines which are best and those systems survive while others die. No company can choose correctly and neither can government. Without a functioning market, we won’t make such choices. We’ll stick with a bad system with ever-rising prices and limited access.

We Can’t Do it Without You Please continue writing and calling your legislators. Believe it or not, it really matters. They know when they are hearing from people and it makes an impression. Please write to Democratic and Republican party leaders, too! And please continue volunteering to help. And please…do contribute so that we can also continue to hire professional petition circulators to fill any gaps in what we collect through your efforts.